Life Changing Decisions – Move to Bhutan

After a long time promising to get back at posting, I have officially a good excuse. I now live in The Happiest Country on Earth: The Kingdom of Bhutan!

I am now a teacher in the Kingdom of Bhutan, one of the most closed countries in the planet,
and I made it here through a series of personal turmoil. Over the last two and a bit years, my life changed quite a bit. I went from clinically depressed to finishing my Ph.D, moving back to Brazil, teaching for one year in one of the most prestigious schools in the American Continent,
giving that up, getting married and giving up a great job to move to the Land of the Thunder Dragon.

Why Bhutan? So many people have asked me this questions and I don’t really have a single answer. It is a combination of factors. Bhutan is one of the most difficult countries to enter in the world. Its culture is still so untouched, there is so much to explore… etc etc… but the main reason is: I prefer to regret having taken this opportunity than wonder about what could have been.

What the decision difficult to make? Well, not really! I had the will to throw myself at this opportunity and the support from my family and my then girlfriend. So much so that we got married in 12 days and she is here with me! Want better support than this?

Why give up a great job? It was not easy. I liked my previous job quite a lot! Loved the people I worked with and I felt bad having left the job. It is not easy to quit, is it? They were also very supportive. I really wanted the opportunity to work with underprivileged children in a country that is supporting its Education System with everything it has. It is inspiring to see how fast Education is progressing.

Is Bhutan changing your life? Another question that everyone asks me all the time. I am an avid traveller and think that our lives are changed at every moment, every day, by every experience, it does not matter how small it is. Coming to a highly spiritual country, still so ingrained in Buddhism does change one’s life, but not in the way that you’d think. It is another set of experience that will, in whatever way, have an impact in my life. How? I don’t know! I just want to absorb as much of the culture as I possibly can.